The young designers project

Be the new Methode, Centro Studi Casnati.

By now you must have figured it out: we love young people!
Whether they are creative, intuitive or instinctive, they have the ability to power change.
It is up to us to educate them by showing how possible it is to change course.

It will be they, learning from our mistakes and the limitations of progress, which is now presenting the bill, who will improve obsolete roads and empower new ways of living that care about people, ethics and the environment.

Thus begins our journey with the students of the fourth art high school, Giuseppe Terragni, fashion design address of the Centro Studi Casnati in Como.

Excellent relationships with school and enthusiastic school leaders, forerunners of an excellent education model (see Casnati for ESD) have led to the emergence of formidable synergies.

Thus begins the collaboration between Centro Studi Casnati, Produce Sinapsi and La Methode.

First meeting at La Methode workshop.
Early digital project prototypes.

Imagine if ... you'll write the future.

Designing a garment that:

A timeless product that by its aptitude can remain recognizable and divorced from ephemeral and temporary trends and styles and that places respect for the environment and the person at the center.

For the students, real and replicable work in an industrial setting with a horizon toward the future, a not-so-distant future after all. 

The project demands reflect the starting points of the La Methode project and can be summarized in this brief outline:

The same design tools were provided to all children to carry out this project:

Thanks to these elements and the supervision of Professor Laura Castelletti, it was possible to lead the students to a finished product that reflected the design direction.

First project checkpoint at Centro Studi Casnati
Comparison and suggestions for head development

The boundaries of the project: Are you ready to design the leader of the future?

Is it possible to make a product that can remain iconic for the next 100 years, without the aid of chemistry, colors, but only by challenging creativity?

Conceiving, designing and finally making a garment:

The demands do not end there.
The demands do not endAll of La Methode's current leaders are meant to beo here. genderless and so we also asked the designers; for details and accessories, they were provided with the fabrics in Up-Time, the jersey made from pre-consumer raw materials leaving free room for use.

After these premises we come to the day of the first meeting, March 1, 2023, at our Laboratory.

The young designers immersed themselves among spools, textile machines, and thanks to Bruno's support, were able to see and touch the transformations that take place in the textile supply chain.

Behind every single garment there are many production steps; companies and people are involved as early as the design selection stage, and this factor is extremely crucial.

Inclusive thinking that, even before triggering any processing, consistently directs its development is therefore imperative. 

In accompanying the students on this difficult but opportunity-filled journey, Professor Castelletti's supervision and guidance was instrumental.

During the second meeting with the children at the institute, we got to view the first sketches, from that moment we realized the true potential of the project. 

The guys' ideas were very good, and with Bruno's tips on how to improve the fit, make the packing steps easier, and how to go about obviating future problems that the unfinished, heavy-weight fabric might have caused, the projects got off the ground. 

A prototype made by a young designer.
Classroom review at the Casnati Study Center.

First review, April 2023.

The project took place during the last academic term, and towards the end of April, Bruno and Federica met with the children for a check-point on the work.

Students showed the first design sketches hinting at the true potential of the project.

Thanks to Bruno's tips on how to improve the fit, ease the tailoring steps, and how to go about obviating future issues that the unfinished (heavy-weighted) fabric might have caused, the project officially got underway.

The following phases took place within the educational program with teachers supervising and developing the following phases until the final surprise.

The end-of-project parade at the Centro Studi Casnati.
Designers' projects on the runway in June 2023.

Project delivery, June 2023.

The day of delivery was a great satisfaction.

Each designer recounted his or her personal experience in the realization of the project.
The stories, starting from the concept, have been articulating toward the first sketches and paper patterns have come to the presentation of prototypes, which in our opinion are interesting and developable for the future.

This collaboration showed itself in all its creative expressiveness, and the children lived up to it.

Of course, keeping to the guidelines by arriving at an interesting end result proved to be a daunting challenge.
The fabric we provided to the kids, a hemp and cotton prototype finished with a simple machine wash, proved to be extremely challenging.

The gravity elongation of the knit has led to a constant revision of the patterns; to this we add the difficulty in making a fabric that rolls up, precisely because it is not stabilized, and the details used for trims, hems, pockets and who the folds of the garments, always using with the iconic up-cycle bias, the symbol of Methode.

The final catwalk of the project.

We leave the floor to Professor Castelletti for a comment on the project.

First and foremost, this collaboration has allowed us to get a taste of fashion and textiles in a different way; our pupils often have the opportunity to interact with companies through projects dedicated to them, and they have already been able to touch upon the field of sustainability.

In this case, however, La Methode allowed us to imagine this diverse field with different eyes; it is crucial at this age to be able to see and experience a system in the round, realizing that it is not always imperative to put aesthetics first.

The company followed us step by step, planning with us an intermediate step of presentation: it was important for us to understand whether the designed garments could match the expectations of the final customer, and fortunately they did.

The next phase was definitely the most complex; the goal of my discipline (pattern making and tailoring), within our art high school, is to allow the students to make the garment they designed from scratch, to better understand its flaws and strengths. In this case we raised the bar, we asked them to make the garment with finishes, accessories and all the details necessary for the presentation of a finished garment.

It has not been an easy journey, especially the steps involved in processing the material, which is very different from the fabrics the children usually handle.

For that very reason, however, it was an exciting challenge that gave them new skills and earned them the opportunity to walk the runway during the Fashion Show held at our school in early June.
Really a great satisfaction for all of the

Link all'articolo pubblicato sul sito del Centro Studi Casnati, abbiamo portato l'educazione civica nel futuro:
https://www.centrocasnati.it/index.php/sections/abbiamo-portato-leducazione-civica-nel-futuro/

Thanks to all the children who participated and put their creativity on the line, we present them to you with a brief description of their respective projects:

Free returns will bury us all

Choose well, choose early.

Those who toss and turn in bed at night in fear of thezombie apocalypse or those who live in holy terror of the wandering meteorite that will end us like the dinosaurs can sleep soundly.

If we go on like this, these will not be the poetic causes of our extinction; eh no, homo sapiens (perhaps not so much sapiens) has created with his own various weapons of destruction, one of which is surely climate pollution (what do you know).
In this case, the free return are helping to gallop this process along.

By now you have gotten to know us (hour philosophy potete fare un ripassino della nostra filosofia) and you know that for us, talking about certain things is not greenwashing, nor is it a corollary to our corporate vision.
We want to find a new balance and Dress The Change is not a nice catchy, it's who we are.

We believe that this is the right way to do business today and that it is no longer acceptable to keep putting our heads under the carpet!

This is also why we believe that free return is not only unsustainable, but also and especially harmful and detrimental to the environment and people.

Let us clarify a few points.
Return per se is not an absolute evil..

It may happen that we go into a store, buy a garment, come home and realize that perhaps that product is not quite right for us and our style, a lightning strike you know, does not necessarily become love.
So we go back to the store and return the merchandise, exchanging it or getting a refund; we can live with that.

In shopkeeper will check the merchandise and, once the quality is ascertained, put it back on sale.
This normally happens and this requires that the shopkeeper is firstly stocked with goods to make the exchange (stock) and secondly has not made the item especially for us.

The Can the returned goods be put back on sale and and at best resold, sold out or ...?
What we have mentioned is a simple case of buying from a physical store that is easily accessible and whose managers we probably know.

So far - almost - so good.

Things have started to degenerate withthe explosion of online shopping (pandemic and other disasters have turbocharged the trend), but even here, with an effort at literary positivism, the "facilitated" return is based on fair principles.
That is, it may be the case that on a percentage basis it is easier to catch a crab buying a garment online than in a physical store: you have no way to try it on, to realize if the size is right or if the color shown is true to the original.
Facilitating online returns is in itself a fair gesture toward the consumer. Except that we got carried away..

Warning!

Wild free returns have taken what started out as consumer protection to extremes: wardrobing, i.e. no curbs on compulsive buying (I can return it anyway, and for free to boot!), thousands of couriers scurrying globally to return packages and parcels filled with "unwanted" clothes to the sender, resulting in pollution, road traffic et al.

But there is an even more perverse side to all this, concealed or ill-concealed, certainly hidden in the digital hemisphere.

Buying a cheap T-shirt, a fast fashion product to be clear, and making a return means this: the company that produces it has to bear the return shipping costs and in theory should also have esaminare il capo dal personale del controllo qualità quality control personnel examine the garment to make sure it is intact and can be put back on sale.
Unfortunately however, the cost of doing this exceeds and far exceeds the value of the randomly purchased and thoughtlessly returned T-shirt.

The result? It costs the manufacturing company much less to send it directly to the landfill..

Yes, you got it right, the (new) garment is being thrown out, no pun intended.

To recap:environmental pollution, wasted resources and energy, road traffic, and a nice contribution to labor exploitation.

That's why from our point of view La Methode necessarily should aim to minimize returns, and why our return policies are different from what you can find on other sites.

But there are fair objections; let's examine some of them.

"I like your garments, but they are also an investment.
I buy one of your hoodies and I want it to be perfect for me, to be something I can wear every day for years.
How then do I make a serene purchase?"

On our website you will find an accurate size guide, plus if you have any doubts we are always available to give you precise fit directions, to make sure your La Methode garment is sewn to you.
You can find us here hour philosophy and also on whatsapp (live chat on our website, bottom right).

"Why do you keep a fee even if I return the garment to you without defects?"

Because the above charges (shipping and quality control) exist, plus in this way we want to discourage policies such as order-try-return (it's free anyway!) on which we totally disagree.
Certainly you will be able to replace an item of the wrong size with one of the correct size, at no additional cost, you will only be responsible for the shipping costs of the new product sent.
At the same time we also offer the possibility to exchange item for one of a different type applying the same rules as for size exchange.

We withhold the fee only for return ""naked"that is, the return of the item without a size change request (what we withhold covers the cost of return shipping).

"How can I be sure that the La Methode garment I plan to purchase is right for me?" 

Visit us! We are local and we start here, on the territory.
We'll be able to show you the production process, the differences between fibers, and you'll be able to touch our amazing fabrics (watch out, though! we disclaim any responsibility in case you decide to completely redo your wardrobe with our garments) and choose the perfect one for you.

We are also planning events in partnership with other Italian companies so, even if you don't live near us, it may be that we will come to you.So keep an eye on our socials!

In conclusion, if you want to learn more, we have a couple of resources for you:

We know the topic return rendered stirs the souls, so we look forward to seeing you in the comments to the post we'll be doing on Instagram!

The way to a different way of living and producing is definitely through our choices.
For s/luck!